In modern computer age, business relies on network to function properly. According to some estimates, network outrages cost $1,400 per minute on average. How to reduce down time is critical to the success of business. However, network is getting more and more complex and it is increasingly difficult to manage it efficiently with traditional methods and tools. The following are some of the key challenges in network management facing nearly 2 million network professionals in large enterprises:                The text-based command-line interface (CLI) is still the primary method to carry out most network engineering tasks. Command line interface relies on human engineers typing in proper text command, and print to the screen the status or configuration of network. Human being needs a lot of training to decode the large volume of text to discover the network issues, and propose proper network design. It is very error-prone and inefficient.        The engineering tasks required of network professionals are very complex and dynamic in nature. Such tasks often include discovering and documenting network design, troubleshooting network faults, propose and implementing network changes. Each network tasks often needs hundreds of elementary steps, such as issuing a command inside command line interface. Network, even though the design of which is static, is dynamically reacting to any topology change or traffic flow change—making it very difficult for human engineer to analyze and troubleshoot.        For years, traditional network management solutions have been trying to solve the above challenges with automation. But those automations suffered from the effectiveness, in that they are centering on network, not on specific network tasks in hand. For example, it is possible for an engineer to run a change report across entire network, using traditional solutions. It is difficult to run a report of network change about a problem application, because neither the tools nor the human engineers can define the “the problem application” in a mutually understandable format, with existing solutions.        
Consequently, traditional network management systems typically generate large volumes of information, and the network engineer needs to dig through the information to find useful information. The following are some exemplary U.S. patents relating to network management systems and network mapping. U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,058,103 and 5,504,921 relate generally to network object models. U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,205,122, 5,276,789, 6,477,572, 5,572,640, and 6,137,782 relate generally to automatic detection of network topology. U.S. Pat. No. 6,137,782 discloses the method to automatically analyze and display the physical connection of a traffic flow. U.S. Pat. No. 6,957,263 discloses a user interface for discovering a network connection between two end points. U.S. Pat. No. 6,151,031 discloses a map builder system. U.S. Pat. No. 6,718,382 relates generally to detection of “leaky” points in a network. U.S. Pat. No. 6,628,304 discloses a map-based graphical user interface that allows the user to select a network node and then zoom-in or zoom-out from the selected node as a centrally located node to view different levels of the network device hierarchy. Each of the above-referenced patent is hereby incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. Because such network management systems generally are not aware of users' workflow, such tools are irrelevant to most engineers' network engineering tasks. Industry expert estimates as little as 2% network management tasks are actually automated.
Lastly, the network management industry lacks good methods that can describe and document network engineering processes. Typically, network engineering tasks are manually described by text and diagrams. Generally speaking, the moment such documentation is created, it becomes obsolete because the network is changing. Therefore, network professionals are often unwilling to spend much time on such manually documented methods.